Trade wars

China orders all American computers to be trashed as China-US trade war deepens

CHINA has ordered all its government offices and public institutions to remove American computers amid trade negotiations between the two countries failing to progress.

The aim of the move is reportedly to increase China’s reliance on home-made technologies. But this is likely to hit US companies such as HP, Dell and Microsoft hard. Analysts at Jefferies say that US technology companies generate as much as $150bn a year in revenues from China.

Paul Triolo of consultancy Eurasia Group told the FT: “The goal is clear: getting to a space largely free of the type of threats that ZTE, Huawei, Megvii, and Sugon now face.”

This comes after US President Donald Trump’s administration banned US companies from doing business with Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei earlier this year.

The ban also covered ZTE, a telecoms company, along with Hikvision and Dahua, manufacturers of surveillance cameras and Hytera, which produces two-way radios. 

Washington was said to be concerned about Chinese technology companies helping the government to conduct cyber espionage.